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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  10. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. The kitten curled into a ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. cue — a hint
  2. field — farmland
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. clip — a video
  5. mine — for digging
  6. ball — a dance
  7. stock — goods
  8. degree — an amount
  9. cue — a signal
  10. ball — a great time
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. stock — shares
  13. field — a subject
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. clip — for paper
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. degree — from a university
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. field — for sport
  20. bark — to shout
  21. cue — for pool
  22. degree — temperature
  23. clip — to cut
  24. ball — a round shape

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com